Of course if you have OILY / ACNE-PRONE skin you know that you HAVE TO wash your face and take care of your skin, otherwise you’re in BIG TROUBLE fast!!

But did you know that some of your daily skincare habits could actually be CAUSING YOUR ACNE??!

Read below to see if you are making the PROBLEM even WORSE!

Habit #1: Over-drying your face. 

Sucking all the oil and moisture out of your face is a sure-fire way to irritate your skin, says Nakhla. While it might seem like a good idea to dry out oily skin with harsh cleansers, soap, and alcohol-based toners — and skimp on the moisturizer — your skin is more complicated than that.

Drying out your skin will actually cause it to producemore oil, says King. She explains that the skin naturally tries to correct itself, therefore if it feels dry it will try to balance the situation by producing more oil, continuing the vicious cycle.

Be gentle with your skin and keep it hydrated (but that doesn’t mean greasy). Try using a cleanser made specifically for acne-prone skin, but follow it up with a hydrating toner and/or a light, oil-free moisturizer so your skin doesn’t freak and up the oil ante. You can also use a mattifying moisturizer on especially shiny areas during the day to soak up oil without over-drying your skin.

Habit #2: Using makeup with ingredients that can cause irritation. 

There are certain ingredients lurking in the makeup and sunscreen you’re slathering on that are causing you to break out. Now this doesn’t mean you have to forgo your foundation (scary, we know) or stop applying SPF (please, don’t), but you do need to keep a watchful eye on product labels. King and Nakhla say to avoid these known acne offenders:

• Artificial Color — Look for FD&C in the ingredients list, which means the product has artificial color. This can irritate the skin and if it’s in your lipstick or blush, it can cause breakouts around your mouth or on your cheeks.
• Lanolin — This is basically the fancy term for sheep sebum (sebum = oil) and while it can be good for dry skin, it’s not right for acne-prone skin.
• Mineral Oil — This forms a film on your skin, trapping dead skin cells and bacteria (prime causes of acne) and it can also give you milia, those tiny white bumps on your skin.
• Petroleum — This is oil, and as you may have guessed, you don’t really need to be putting more oil on your face.
• Isopropyl Myristate — This can actually make your skin feel less greasy, but it also clogs pores and causes skin irritation.
• Artificial Fragrance — This can irritate your skin and cause breakouts. Try to use as many fragrance free products as possible.

Habit #3: Stress!

So, you’re already aware that stress gets your heart racing, your stomach churning, and causes wrinkles — but did you know that it also increases the hormones that can cause acne? So sad, so true. So what are we saying — magically chill out just because we told you to (yeah, wouldn’t that just be dandy)? No, but you can do things to relax and minimize the drama.

Habit #4: Your laundry schedule

As if your dirty laundry isn’t annoying enough to deal with, it could also be causing your acne. Think about it: Your face lies on your pillowcase for hours at a time, and if it’s not clean, you’re basically rolling around in a bunch of dead skin cells and bacteria. As for that towel of yours? If it’s not fresh from the dryer, you could be wiping germs all over your newly-cleansed skin.

Try changing your pillowcase once or twice a week and using a fresh towel daily. Also, if you use fabric softeners made with tallow (aka animal fat — ew), they aren’t going to do your acne any favors. And definitely keep in mind that a lot of detergents and fabric softeners contain fragrance that can cause irritation as well.

So we hope this is enlightening for those of you out there struggling with ACNE, and we hope that changing some of these daily habits will lead to BRIGHT, BEAUTIFUL skin that you can feel your MOST CONFIDENT in!